Pretty Pens: A Tutorial

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I’ve already made a zippered pouch, I just need a little something to put in it.

Like pens.  These pens were ones I snagged from work, with permission of course.  They were for promotional use and we had way too many.  Who could pass up a freebie?  They just needed a personal touch so I tweaked them. 

You can try it too, here’s the tutorial:

You will need some boring old pens, some thin ribbon, scissors, and a warmed up glue gun (like this one).  Heat resistant gloves would help too, I burnt myself twice.

First remove the cap so it won’t get in your way.  Dab a little glue on the pen just before where the cap would go in order to glue the end of the ribbon to the pen. 

The ribbon should be at a slight angle since it will be wrapped around.  Don’t worry about the raw edges yet.

Proceed to wrap the ribbon around the pen dabbing glue as you go.  It is a good idea to pull tightly on the ribbon as you wrap to ensure it stays nice and smooth.  Just don’t pull so tightly that you rip the ribbon off.

When you get to the end, it sort of resembles the stripes on a candy cane.  If you like it like that, just skip down and finish the ends.  Otherwise, let’s continue.

You need to make sure the end is securely glued down for this part.  You need to fold the ribbon toward the writing end of the pen and then at an angle.  Kind of like how it was when we started gluing and wrapping.

Then you just have to continue wrapping and gluing until you get back to where you started.

Carefully cut the ribbon and glue down the end.  To finish, you can wrap a smaller piece of  ribbon around the pen a couple of times to cover the raw edges, then glue it down.  Trust me, this looks a lot better than leaving the raw edges as is.

What you have now is a pen that’s uniquely yours, comfortable to hold, and really cheap to boot.

It took me a several minutes to make my first one, but after I got the hang of it I was able to make a set of them very quickly.  You will be able to too.

Here’s the updated list:

• Slippers
• Handkerchiefs
• Cases
• Pens
• Binder
• T-shirt
• Skirt
• Bag
• Background

Five down, four to go.  The next should be up by Monday.  Of course knowing me, it will probably be up by Tuesday.  :(

Give it a try:

• ArtMinds Fashion Mini Glue Gun
• Celebrate It 360° Double-Faced Satin Ribbon